Burning Lotus
by Altsoba
Summary: This is my first Resident Evil 4 fanfiction. Giant spiders, corpses and creepy music box rooms, all in a day's work for Leon S. Kennedy. Corpses mean that things are always going to get worse. Always.


This is something I began back over Christmas break when I was so out of it with having my tonsils out. My friend gave me a copy of the Lost Carols and there was a music box theme on it which for some reason creeped me out. Really creeped me out and this is what came from it, my first ever Resident Evil 4 fanfic. Hope you like it.

I don't own Resident Evil, but I do own every format the game has been released in... I'm not obssessed, I just wanted the extra features...

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Burning Lotus

Steps echoing off into the gloom of the room that stood just ahead of him, Leon took a deep breath before stepping away from the relative safety of the hallway to face what was before him. This room was the last and if Leon remembered the layout of the house right, this room had to be the room that lead to his target. Leon pulled his gun to the ready, wishing that his eyes would adjust faster to the low amount of lighting given off from the singular source.

Out of the corners of his eyes Leon could see flickers of movement, yet he kept steadily onward towards the focus of the single light. So far nothing had come for him out of the gloom. Being low on ammo disinclined any thoughts of chasing out after the movement into the shadows; Leon would prefer to save what he had until he needed it.

The center of the room, and the focus of the only light, was adorned with a single pedestal. There was black lacquer chasing its tail up the brownish red stains that solidly covered the wood. As Leon drew closer to the pillar he noticed the glimmer atop. Set so that it would catch the light a clear, glass flower stood, it seemed to be waiting.

Leon could see the gears and machinery inside. This flower was some kind of mechanism, probably the one that would allow him access to his target. Leon circled the flower once, still catching just the glimmer of movement in his peripheral. He couldn't see any obvious traps waiting to ensnare him, but so far, there was nothing obvious to this mission.

Stopping, he leaned closer to the crystal, hoping to see something that might give away what the piece might do. He could see no wires and the clear lotus showed no signs of being attached in any way to the pedestal.

As unnerving as it was that he could see no traps, his wariness was increasing by the second, not being able to see the rest of the room. Quickly he snatched at the lotus, moving as far back from the pedestal as he dared without crossing out of the dim light.

Leon waited, counting the seconds in his head, senses on high for the alert of any change that might come.

After ten seconds that seemed an eternity, Leon looked down at the glass flower in his hand. It was heavy, carrying a weight far heavier than something of its size should. He assumed that the flower must be some kind of key. He turned it over in his hands, searching for anything that might give him a clue as to how to use it.

There was a small gear at the bottom. All in all it didn't look like anything other than a simple music box, but if Leon had learned anything from his travels it was that nothing here was simple.

Crossing back to the pedestal Leon began looking for any sort of indentation that would show him where something might be placed. Nothing he could see lead him to believe that there was anything here that would help him.

His fingers wandered across the bottom of the flower, again running over the gear. Leon began to idly turn the gear, listening to the small clacking sound the gears made inside as he thought about his situation.

Fully wound, Leon set the lotus back on the pedestal.

At first the notes came slowly, the sound of them crackling filled with dust and age, infinitesimally picking up speed as it warmed. As it played the sound of the notes grew stronger. As did the light in the room. Leon barely noticed it at first, but his circle of light had grown, and was growing to the edge of the room.

The most astonishing thing that Leon noticed were the mirrors. There were mirrors covering the walls of the room, each cut so that his figure was divided in half and further. Leon surmised that this was the movement he saw as he crossed the room. Each mirror appeared to have been angled so that it would reflect the light coming from the music box back to the music box, creating the bright pinpoint at the lotus' center.

The pedestal the music box sat on was just shy of being in the center of the room; a much larger pillar held that spot. There were also long poles spread throughout the room. Leon was surprised that he hadn't walked into any of them. He couldn't see up to the tops of any of them, the deep shadows not being penetrated by the lotus' light.

This light grew so bright at the center that Leon found it hard to look at, the song too, was speeding up far faster than any normal music box should. A kaleidoscope of light and sound quickly becoming too much to bear. Leon began to back away.

It seemed like the flower was about to explode. Leon backed up against one of the many poles circling the room, shielding his eyes against the painful light emanating from the flower. He wasn't sure how much more he could take, surely the music box would kill him. Just about on the verge of meltdown, the supernova at the center of the room began to dim. The song too, began to slow, decreasing from the runaway speed of which it achieved back to the dusty sound it had before.

Once again the room was dimmed, though not as far as it had been before.

Bright, colorful flashes passed across his vision. Leon blinked hard to try to clear them away. He strained his ears for any sound, relying on his hearing as his eyes tried to clear.

The song changed with a loud clattering sound, like a thousand claws running on glass. The floor gave a groaning rumble and turned to water, trying to pull Leon down. Leon jerked himself back, stumbling like a drunkard on the unstable surface, smashing his shoulder into another of the metal poles in his attempts to distance himself from the lotus.

Steadying himself on the bone breaking rod, Leon tried to reorient, regain his bearings. The door leading back out to the hallway should have been just behind him, but he didn't think it was. The room was spinning, not ripping in circles, but rolling in a steady pace.

Leon turned, not knowing where he was attempting to go. He suspected the door to the hallway was not where he left it. Stumbling to the wall Leon tried to feel a way along it, thinking that possibly the door had closed; hoping that the door was just closed. Cursing himself, Leon slid his fingers around the smooth glass. He should have known this was going to be some sort of trap, the beveled edges of the connected mirrors made it hard to tell if what he was prying at was something that would open or not.

A wet sound made Leon cease his movements, his hands immediately pulling and aiming his gun. There was something up in the deepest shadows, the sound it made was of someone sliding their hand across wet tile.

Leon aimed up into the shadows, watching for the threat up above. He stepped away from the wall, trying his best to ignore the spinning sensation of the room, but had not traveled too far from it.

With that wet skin on porcelain sound, something slid completely down the pole just to the right and behind him. Leon spun, temporarily losing his balance and catching it again on the pole that was now to his back.

Leon didn't dare to come any closer, but from his vantage point he thought he could see what had come down the pole clearly enough.

It looked like people, people sliding down the poles. Except that Leon doubted very much that any of these people were controlling their slides from the dark down these long glimmering poles.

The amounts of putrefaction varied, the clothes were all in different states of decay. Only through the fresher corpses was Leon able to tell that they used to be people in the first place. With a wet slap the final corpse, the one on the pole Leon was leaning against, fell.

Scrambling away, trying to wipe the festering rot from off his arm, Leon stumbled back into the middle of the room. Gasping, trying to control his gorge, Leon began to talk himself down from the panic that was threatening to break him. This whole mission had him wound tighter than a spring, and this disorienting room did no give him much time to think.

He needed a plan. Something that was going to get him out of this room alive and relatively unmaimed. Anything that came next was going to be something bad, nothing good ever came after corpses. Vaguely, Leon's overworked mind touched on his memories of Raccoon. The corpses had not been the worst of the lot in that little piece of Hell.

Whatever was coming, though, Leon knew that finding the exit was the only way he would survive. His dwindling supply of ammo would not last him long against many opponents, probably wouldn't last him long against one large one.

At least he would not be taken by surprise.

Careful not to touch any of the pole corpses, Leon picked his way back to the mirrors. Turning so that his back was to the wall, Leon stuck one hand out behind him and let his fingers glide along the edges of the mirrors, hoping that he might be able to feel the edge of the door. He didn't even need to walk, the spinning of the floor allowed him to move completely around the circumference of the room without exposing his back to attack.

His azure eyes never ceased in their scanning, searching out any enemy or possible entrance for one.

He made it just shy of half way around the room when he heard the scraping noises. They came from deep within the shadows up above, something with many feet skittering across a metal surface. The sounds reverberated around the room, running offbeat to the chimes of the music box. It made it very difficult for Leon to tell exactly where the creature was going to come from.

One long leg slid down a pole to the left of him. Its clawed foot squelching into the corpse and pushing it to the ground, leaving a sticky trail of rot to slip down the pole by itself. Leon aimed his gun into the shadows, not quite firing yet.

Another leg slid partially down the pole immediately to his right, the clawed foot mere inches away from Leon's head. He could count the hairs marching their way up into the darkness. Leon broke away from the wall. Whatever it was it was coming down right on top of him.

Firing up where he thought the leg must meet a body, Leon dove towards the music box still playing in the center.

Slowly, the large spider lowered itself to the floor, clicking its mandibles at Leon. Large drops of sluggish white blood dribbled from its side, dropping to the floor. Besides the clacking of its fangs and the clicking of its clawed feet the creature was silent, but determined in its movements towards Leon.

Backing away from the overly large arachnid, Leon began to fire at the creature. He was not afraid of the possibility of ricochet, there was no way he could miss the eight legged monster. Even if a bullet was sent back at him, Leon thought being shot would be a better death than whatever this monster was planning.

Leon hit the center pole. He knew that he had nowhere else to go and decided to make his final stand in this circular room. Running around in a circle or standing, either way he planned on continuing until he ran out of bullets. Having the creature come closer just made the target easier to hit.

The creature's furry fore legs reached out for Leon, swiping at his face with their clawed ends.

Shouting, Leon's instinct for survival forced him to jump backwards; he would take his stand somewhere else. Leon's arm swung out behind him, knocking the music box off its pedestal.

It came to a jangling halt with a crash on the floor. The lotus in the center shattering into a thousand pieces.

The sound of tinkling glass came with the sharp blinding light being released from the lotus' center. Leon covered his eyes, trying to save some of his sight, even though he wasn't sure how much good it would do with the monster not more than a few feet in front of him.

A shrill scream sounded from the area where Leon knew the spider was.

After the scream there was nothing. For a while Leon waited for piercing in his belly that would mean the spider had him, but there was nothing.

He lowered his arms slightly, blinking in the fading light from the lotus. The spider was gone.

Without the music box to power it, the spinning floor came to a halt, and a grinding click told Leon that the door was at least open. He still had a few rounds left, his day was looking up. He couldn't believe this fight was that easy, not that anything was ever this easy. He was certain that his mission would be a lot harder from here on out. Corpses always meant that things were going to get worse. Always.


End file.
